November 9, 2025
Feast of the Dedication of
the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Lectionary: 671
Reading
1
The angel brought
me
back to the entrance of the temple,
and I saw water flowing out
from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east,
for the façade of the temple was toward the east;
the water flowed down from the southern side of the temple,
south of the altar.
He led me outside by the north gate,
and around to the outer gate facing the east,
where I saw water trickling from the southern side.
He said to me,
"This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah,
and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine."
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (5) The
waters of the river gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most
High!
God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Therefore, we fear not, though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.
R. The waters of the river gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling
of the Most High!
There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
God is in its midst; it shall not be disturbed;
God will help it at the break of dawn.
R. The waters of the river gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling
of the Most High!
The LORD of hosts is with us;
our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Come! behold the deeds of the LORD,
the astounding things he has wrought on earth.
R. The waters of the river gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling
of the Most High!
Reading
2
Brothers and
sisters:
You are God's building.
According to the grace of God given to me,
like a wise master builder I laid a foundation,
and another is building upon it.
But each one must be careful how he builds upon it,
for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there,
namely, Jesus Christ.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God's temple,
God will destroy that person;
for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
I have chosen and consecrated this house, says the Lord,
that my name may be there forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Since the Passover
of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money-changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money-changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
"Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews said,
"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?"
But he was speaking about the temple of his Body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had spoken.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110925.cfm
Commentary Ezekiel
47:1-2,8-9,12; 1 Corinthians 3:9-11,16-17; John 2:13-22
Today’s reading from John’s Gospel is the account of Jesus’
cleansing of the Temple. The synoptics report this event just before the
Passion, but John puts it much earlier, just after the story of the wedding
feast at Cana.
We are told Jesus had gone up to Jerusalem from Galilee
because the Passover feast was near. When he entered the Temple area he found
people selling oxen, sheep and doves to be offered by pilgrims as sacrifices.
There were also money changers because Roman currency could not be used in the
Temple and had to be changed for Jewish shekels. Jesus was not at all happy
about these activities.
He made a small whip of cords and began driving out those
selling animals and overturned the tables of the money-changers, saying:
Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s
house a marketplace!
Of course, what the sellers were doing was not against any
law; in fact, it was a necessary service. The problem was that commerce like
this should have been done outside the Temple area, just as we would not be
happy to see trinkets and such being sold inside the church building after
Mass. Hawkers tend to get as close to the action as they can and that is what
was happening here—but it was still inappropriate.
However, some Jews challenged Jesus, asking: “What sign can
you show us authorising you to do such things?” What Jews were these? Were they
priests or officials of the Temple who were getting a ‘cut’ on the hawkers’
profits and turning a blind eye to their selling inside the Temple precincts?
Jesus gave them a strange answer:
Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up.
The Jews took him literally saying:
This temple has been under construction for forty-six
years, and will you raise it up in three days?
This was the mighty Temple of Herod, which even after 46
years was not yet quite finished.
But as John comments, Jesus was talking about the Temple of
his Body. And it was only after the Resurrection that the disciples came to
understand the meaning of Jesus’ words. They are words we need to remember
today. We are celebrating the dedication of a church building, the Lateran
Basilica, but what is much more important are the people who use that building.
It is they who give it its significance, and not the other way round.
In the New Covenant, there is no temple building. The temple
is now the Christian community, which is the Risen Body of Christ. Jesus is in effect
saying: “Whoever sees you, sees Me.” So it is important in today’s celebration
that we recall who we are, and how we are to be seen to be the Temple of
Christ’s Body for the world.
There is a choice of First Readings today.* One is from
the prophet Ezekiel and is part of a beautiful image of fresh water flowing out
from the Temple in Jerusalem and bringing new life and fertility to wherever it
flows. This fresh and clean water flows east into the Dead Sea and makes it
fresh again:
Wherever the river goes, every living creature that
swarms will live, and there will be very many fish once these waters reach
there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes…On the
banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food.
Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail…
It is an image of the Temple of Jerusalem as a source of
life for all. And in today’s celebration, it points to the life that comes to
the world through the communities which gather together in a church like St
John Lateran and all our cathedrals and parish churches. Again, it is not the
building which is the source of life, but the community which gathers together
there.
In the alternate First Reading from the First Letter to the
Corinthians, Paul speaks very strongly of the Christian community as the true
Temple of God:
For we are God’s coworkers, working together; you are
God’s field, God’s building.
Paul sees himself as a builder, but it is not a building of
bricks and mortar he is erecting, but a building of people. And he is only
initiating the building work; others will take over from him and continue it.
This building of people can have only one foundation, and that is Jesus Christ.
And Paul concludes in words that leave no room for doubt:
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s
Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that
person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
So, in celebrating today’s feast, we are being called on to
focus more on the kind of temple that we are than on the building, however
important and beautiful it may be. In the beginning, there were no churches and
people met in each other’s homes for the Eucharist. Church buildings became
necessary because of growing numbers. In fact, if St John Lateran, St Peter’s
and all the churches in the world were to collapse into ruins, the real Temple
of God would continue—in us:
For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am
there among them. (Matt 18:20)
___________________________________________________
*When this feast falls on a Sunday, the passage from 1
Corinthians is read as the second reading.
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Sunday,
November 9, 2025
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
John 2:13-22
Opening prayer
God of power and mercy, protect us
from all harm. Give us freedom of spirit and health in mind and body to do Your
work on earth.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who
lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Gospel Reading - John 2:13-22
When the time of the Jewish
Passover was near Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the temple He found people
selling cattle and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting there.
Making a whip out of cord, He drove
them all out of the temple, sheep and cattle as well, scattered the money
changers' coins, knocked their tables over and said to the dove sellers,
"Take all this out of here and stop using my Father's house as a
market."
Then His disciples remembered the
words of scripture: I am eaten up with zeal for Your house.
The Jews intervened and said,
"What sign can you show us that you should act like this?"
Jesus answered, "Destroy this Temple, and in three
days I will raise it up." The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six
years to build this temple: are you going to raise it up again in three
days?" But He was speaking of the Temple that was His body, and when Jesus
rose from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they
believed the scripture and what He had said.
Reflection
•
Context. Our passage contains a clear and
unmistakable teaching of Jesus in the temple. Previously John the Baptist had
given witness of Jesus saying that He was the Messiah (Jn 1:29). The first
disciples, on the indication of the Baptist, have recognized Him as the Lamb of
God. A quality of the Messiah: to inaugurate a new Passover and covenant and
bring about the definitive liberation of mankind (Jn 1:35-51) In Cana, Jesus
works a first sign to show His glory (Jn 2:1-12). The glory becomes visible. It
can be contemplated, and, therefore it manifests itself. It is the glory of the
Father present in the person of Jesus which manifests itself at the beginning
of His activity in this way, anticipating His “hour” (Jn 17: 1). In what way is
His glory manifested? God gratuitously restores a new relationship with
mankind. He unites mankind intimately to Him giving mankind the capacity to
love as He loves, through the Spirit who purifies the human heart and makes him
son of God. But, it is necessary to recognize the immutable love of God,
manifested in Jesus, responding with faith, with a personal adherence.
•
Jesus and the Temple. Now Jesus is in the temple
in Jerusalem fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi (Mal 3:1-3). He proclaims
Himself Messiah. His teaching produces tension. Now the reader understands why
the great disputes with the Jews always take place in the temple, where Jesus
pronounces His substantial denunciations. His task is to lead the people outside
the temple (2:15; 10:4). In the last instance Jesus was condemned because He
represented a danger to the temple and for the people. Jesus goes to Jerusalem
on the occasion of the Passover of the Jews to manifest Himself in public and
to reveal to all that He is the Messiah. During that feast Jerusalem is full of
pilgrims who have come from all parts, and therefore His actions would have had
a great effect on the whole of Palestine. When He arrives in Jerusalem He
immediately is seen in the temple where there are a number of people selling
cattle, sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting there. The encounter in
the temple is not with people who seek God but dealers of the sacred. The
amount paid to be able to open a stand in order to be able to sell was given to
the high priest. Jesus chooses this occasion (the Passover) this place (the
temple) to give a sign. He takes a whip, an instrument which was a symbol of
the Messiah who punishes vices and evil practices, and He drives out these
people from the temple, together with the cattle and sheep. It is worthy to
note His act against those selling the doves (v. 15). The dove was an animal
used for the propitiatory holocausts (Lev 9:14-17), in the sacrifices of
expiation and of purification (Lev 12:8; 15:14,29), and especially if those who
offered it were poor (Lev 5:7; 14:22, 30 ff). The sellers, those who sold the
doves, sold reconciliation with God for money.
•
The house of my Father. The expression wants to
indicate that Jesus in His actions behaves as a Son. He represents the Father
in the world. They have transformed the worship of God into a market, a place
for trading. The temple is no longer the place of encounter with God, but a
market where the presence of money is in force. Worship has become the pretext
to gain more. Jesus attacks the central institution of Israel, the temple, the
symbol of the people and of the election. He denounces that the temple has been
deprived of its historical function, to be the sign of the dwelling of God in
the midst of His people. The first reaction to Jesus’ action comes from the
disciples who associate this with Psalm 69:10: “I am eaten up with zeal for
your house”. The second reaction comes from the high priests who respond in the
name of those selling in the temple: “What sign can you show us that you should
act like this?” (v.18). They have asked Him for a sign and He gives them that
of His death. “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up” (v.
19). Jesus is the Temple that is an assurance of the presence of God in the
world. The presence of His love and the death on the cross will make of Him the
only and definitive Temple of God. The temple constructed by human hands has
fallen into decay. Jesus will be the one to replace it, because He is now the
presence of God in the world as the Father is present in Him.
Personal questions
•
Have you understood that the sign of love of God
for you is no longer the temple but a Person: Jesus crucified?
•
Do you not know that this sign is given to you
personally to bring about your definitive liberation?
Concluding Prayer
God is both refuge
and strength for us, a help always ready in trouble; so we shall not be afraid
though the earth be in turmoil, though mountains tumble into the depths of the
sea. (Ps 46:1-2)
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Most people probably think that St Peter’s Basilica is the
pope’s main church in Rome. But actually, it is the Church of St John Lateran
which is the cathedral and hence the pope’s church as bishop of the Diocese of
Rome. On the façade of the basilica there is an inscription in Latin which
reads:
The mother and mistress of all churches of Rome and the
world.
We tend to forget that the pope is primarily a bishop, a
‘first among equals’, and that this church has a special and symbolic
importance for the whole Church.
The first church building on this site was built in the 4th
century when the Emperor Constantine gave land he had received from the wealthy
Lateran family. That church, and others which replaced it, suffered over the
centuries from fire, earthquakes and war, but it remained the church where
popes were consecrated until they returned from exile in Avignon, in the south
of France. When the Avignon papacy formally ended and the pope could return to
Rome, the Lateran Palace and the basilica were in a serious state of disrepair.
The popes took up residency at the Basilica of St Mary in Trastevere, and later
at the Basilica of St Mary Major. Eventually, the Palace of the Vatican was
constructed, and it has been the pope’s residence into the present time.
The current Lateran basilica was erected in 1646. It ranks
first among the four major basilicas in Rome (the others are St Peter’s, St
Mary Major’s and St Paul’s Outside the Walls) as the Ecumenical Mother Church.
On top of its facade are 15 large statues representing Christ, John the
Baptist, John the Evangelist and 12 Doctors of the Church. Underneath its high
altar are the remains of a small wooden table on which tradition claims St
Peter celebrated the Eucharist.
St John Baptist and St John the Evangelist are regarded as
co-patrons of the cathedral, the chief patron being Christ the Saviour himself,
as the inscription at the entrance of the basilica indicates, and as is the
tradition in the patriarchal cathedrals. The basilica remains dedicated to the
Saviour, and its titular feast is the Transfiguration. Its full title then is:
Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour
and of Sts John Baptist and John Evangelist in the Lateran.
Celebrating the dedication of the pope’s cathedral today is
a way of expressing the unity of the whole Church with the pope, the Bishop of
Rome. And the union of each local church with this church is an expression of
the unity of all churches both with Rome and with each other.
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